Hayden Tries New Chassis at Donington Park
PEDROSA LEADS THE WAY ON THE FIRST DAY AT DONINGTON
The British Grand Prix weekend began today at Donington Park with Repsol Honda’s star rookie Dani Pedrosa setting the pace during both free practice sessions. The 20-year-old Spaniard, who now lives in London, was quickly on the pace at the sweeping 4.023km (2.500 miles) circuit in the heart of the English midlands, despite riding the challenging track for the first time on a MotoGP bike.
The reigning 250cc world champion was especially impressive in the afternoon where he recorded the three fastest laps of the one-hour session, setting a best lap of 1m 28.970s – over a second inside the existing lap record. Showing impressive consistency, Pedrosa was the only rider to dip into the 1m 28s bracket.
Nicky Hayden finished a tight session just 0.587s behind his team-mate after continuing the development work on his evolution RC211V, including testing a new chassis. The 24-year-old American comes into the weekend with a 42-point lead in the riders’ world championship and full of confidence after his spectacular win in Assen last weekend where notched up his first victory of 2006.
In an extremely close day of MotoGP practice the top 13 riders were covered by less than a second which should make for an exciting qualifying session tomorrow afternoon.
Nicky Hayden 9th – 1m 29.557s
“We were trying a new chassis today and we were testing a few different things on each bike. One felt a lot better on the front and the other felt better on the rear, so hopefully tomorrow we can combine the settings and we’ll be a lot closer. We closed the gap from this morning’s session which is good, though we haven’t started off the first day as fast as we’d have liked again so we’ve still got some work to do here. It’s not that easy though – it’s always a compromise so we’ll come in here tomorrow and try to make a big step. Half a second is quite a lot, and qualifying tomorrow is going to be really important, so we’ll see what we do.”
Dani Pedrosa 1st – 1m 28.970s
“It went pretty well today and we had a good day of practice. The weather was good, it was warm and the Michelins were working well so I’m happy with how it’s gone. I’m at the top of the times today but I’m not reading too much into this yet. Tomorrow will be important because we’ll learn more about the race tyre choice and we also need to do a good job in qualifying because the times at this track are so close – this is going to be critical for a good race. It’s my first time on a MotoGP at Donington and the RC211V feels very powerful here, especially on the last part of the track. Plus we spend a lot of time braking which is hard for the shoulders and arms – it’s pretty tiring. Still, I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”
Makoto Tanaka - Team Manager
“Thankfully it’s very good weather and we had a very good start with good condtions. In both sessions Dani made good progress with his set-up and he looks strong for this weekend. He put in his best times at the end of his long runs so I think he has a very good feeling. He can continue to make progress tomorrow. Nicky tried a new chassis today and therefore has more things to test than usual. If you only look at the timesheets then he’s not right at the top, but the progress is not bad today and I’m sure he can set a good time tomorrow. I’m confident because Nicky is really showing his ability. Last year Honda had a very difficult race here, so this year’s good start means we’re definitely looking forward to the race.”
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.